Assessment
In order to do well, it's not enough just to take a few successful photographs. You must tell a story about what you have learned. Like all good stories, yours should have a beginning, a middle and an end. Look at the diagram below. Think about the relationship between the work you do, the way it is marked and what you can do to make the examiner's life a little easier. Present your work logically. Explain what you have done - not just the what but the how and the why.
Assessment Criteria
How do I achieve a Level 7 or above?
The key phrase in the Assessment Objectives that describes work at Level 7 or above is "highly developed". What does this mean?
Here are some examples of highly developed (or better) students' websites. Take a careful look at them. Try to work out what they have done that met the Level 7 (or above) assessment criteria:
- AO1: "Highly developed" ideas are those that result from detailed, thoughtful, inquisitive research. Candidates will have explored a variety of sources of information, conducting strategic research. You will have discovered appropriate websites and books. You will have visited relevant art galleries and bookshops, looking first hand at works of photography and photobooks. You will have told a convincing story about the development of your ideas over time. You will have recorded your thoughts about the research you have done in your own words, offering insights and observations of your own, rather than simply copying those of others.
- AO2: "Highly developed" experiments with materials, techniques and processes will show how creative and ambitious you have been in developing and refining your work. You will have explored a variety of ways of making photographic images, using a range of tools (cameras, scanners, photocopiers, projectors etc.) and processes (photograms, cyanotypes, photocollage, digital composites etc.) alongside 'straight' photographs. Most importantly, you will select the tools, techniques and processes that are relevant to your ideas.
- AO3: "Highly developed" documents are those that imaginatively and skilfully communicate the story of your learning in photography. You will have used a range of approaches to presenting information on your website (galleries of images, captions, embedded video, bullet point lists, mindmaps, scanned diagrams etc.) You will have carefully and effectively designed your web pages, refining and developing their visual impact (layout, menus, typography, colours, imagery etc.) Your site will look professional and represent the care and attention you have given to the design process. It will communicate your creativity, knowledge and understanding.
- AO4: "Highly developed" responses are personal and meaningful (rather than superficially attractive). They result from detailed research, imaginative ideas and thoughtful experiments. Developments will have been sustained over a long period (rather than flashy, off-the-cuff outcomes). A visitor to your website will be taken through the entire process leading up to the sharing of resolved outcomes. Evaluations will be clear, sensitive explanations of the process of reaching these conclusions. Work will be presented to its best advantage (mounted, framed, projected, installed etc.) and photographs or sketches of the work will help explain how you would like it be seen (ideally) by an audience.
Here are some examples of highly developed (or better) students' websites. Take a careful look at them. Try to work out what they have done that met the Level 7 (or above) assessment criteria:
A checklist
You should also take a look at this checklist which is designed to support students in Year 11 reviewing and refining the evidence on their websites. Remember, there is not set formula for success in photography. The most important qualities to demonstrate are independence, thoughtfulness, imagination, ambition and discipline.